Supreme Council

Letter to Mariano Alvarez and Santiago Alvarez,

October 29-30, 1896

Source: “Historia Civil de Filipinas,” Tomos 6.5, pp.51-3 and 6.6, 191-3 (on
microfilm), University of Santo Tomas archives.

Bonifacio probably wrote this letter somewhere in the hills to the east
of Manila, where he was directing preparations for an attack on Spanish
positions in the town of San Mateo. He had been moving between different
Katipunan camps and safe houses since the revolution began. In the initial
weeks of fighting the KKK leaders in Cavite lost track of his whereabouts, but
by the end of October 1896, after successfully liberating most of the province
from Spanish control, both the Magdiwang and Magdalo councils had
succeeded in re-establishing contact. The Magdiwang council, Ricarte relates,
sent a courier to the hills above Marikina and Montalban to find Bonifacio,
carrying letters telling him about the victories in Cavite and inviting him to
come to the province to witness at first hand the spirit and determination with
which the local Katipuneros were dealing with the harsh circumstances in
which they found themselves.1

The letter below, reproduced here for the first time, is Bonifacio’s reply,
declining the invitation on the grounds that his immediate priority must be to
attend to the needs of the Katipunan forces in Manila, Morong, Bulacan and
Nueva Ecija. Upon receiving this response, the Magdiwang quickly dispatched
a second, more pressing invitation, and then a third, to which Bonifacio finally
acceded.2 He arrived in Cavite, together with Jacinto, on November 17, which
means this flurry of correspondence began and ended within the space of less
than three weeks. Unfortunately none of the other letters has yet been
located, so whatever caused Bonifacio to change his mind about leaving the
Manila area must remain a matter of speculation.

Bonifacio’s letter contains nothing to suggest that the Magdiwang

leaders had urged him to come to Cavite to mediate in a conflict between them
and the Magdalo council. On the contrary, Bonifacio says he has already been
in communication with “our brother” Emilio Aguinaldo, the Magdalo
President of War, and has sent him a letter about his situation and future
plans. Aguinaldo,” he assumes, has by now shared this letter with the
Magdiwang leaders, and he therefore does not repeat what he had written. 3

From the present standpoint this is frustrating, a sharp reminder that

the historical record rarely survives in the form historians would wish! Here
we have a letter, the only document so far located written by Bonifacio during
the critical months of September and October 1896, which tantalizingly tells
us that he had described his situation and plans in another letter that we may
never find.

One striking revelation in the letter, though, is that Bonifacio (and

possibly Jacinto too), at great personal peril, had recently gone back into
Manila in an effort to transmit a message to Filipino patriots in Japan
imploring them to arrange a shipment of weapons as soon as humanly
possible. His initial hope, it seems, was that the message could be sent by
José Moritaro Tagawa, the owner of a Japanese bazaar in Binondo who a few
months previously had hosted (and acted as interpreter at) a meeting between
Katipunan leaders and officers from a visiting Japanese navy training ship, the
Kongo.4 In July 1896, just a month before the outbreak of the revolution,
Bonifacio is said to have approached Tagawa to help the Katipunan purchase
Murata rifles from Japan.5 But now, Bonifacio relates, Tagawa had become
frightened, and the vital message was still to be dispatched.

›››››››››››››››››››››

Tagalog text6
K. K. K.
N. M. A. N. B.

Kataastaasang Sangunian

Sa Kapatid na Mainam Pangulo at sa Kapatid na Kidlat ng Apoy Punong

Hukbo ng Sanguniang Magdiuang

Minamahal na mga kapatid:

Ngayong ika dalauangpu at siyam na arao nitong buang umiiral ay aming

tinangap ang inyong mga kasulatang ipinadala sa amin ¡ at kami ay tunay
na kinakapus ng mga pangungusap na sukat makapagpatanyag ng
kagalakang ualang makatulad na sa aming puso ay naririnig
karakarakang matanto ang kaayusan, katuiran, tapang at mga pag[?]
inyong ysinasaysay: una pati tila nakaapula uari ng mga dalamhating
dinaramdam sa pagka paganyaya ng makapal na mga kapatid at
kababayan na dating kasamasama at katuang sa pagpapalago ng ating
K.K.K.

Kami ay nagpadala na sa ating kapatid na si Gral. Emilio Aguinaldo ng

isang liham na bilang kasagutan sa mga tinangap at pagpapatalastas sa
mga kapatid sa Hukuman ng Tanguay ng aming katayuan at mga
inaakala; at di na namin uulitin dito, sapagkat inaasahan naming ibinalita
na sa iyo ang naturing ang kapatid. Buhat ng mangyari ang paglalaban sa
Polvorin ng San Juan, kami bagama,t, lubhang mapanganib aming
pinagpipilitang makapasok ng Maynila sapagkat ang aming pakay ay ang
makasulat sa ating mga kababayan sa Japon tungkol sa kakulangan ng
baril at iba pang sandatahang kailangan at gayon din ang humikayat sa
ating mga kapatid na sundalo na magsikilos na, datapuat ang kaibigang
Japones na si Moritaro ay natakot na uari at tumanguing ng paraan upang
maipadala ang aming sulat, at tungkol naman sa mga sundalong kapatid
ay nangabilango na bago pa nangyari ang pagkakagulo.

Pagkatangap na namin isang balitang may mga hokbo sa parang kami ay

agad ng umahon at aming hinahanap, kaya’t bago po lamang kaming
nagaayos at nagpalakas dito,i, sa bagay na ito,i, di naming inaakalang
nauukol sa ngayon na kami ay humiualay at pumatungo muna diyan,
hangang sa kami ay kinakailangan ng di mabilang na mga kapatid sa mga
Hukuman ng Maynila, Bulakan, Nueva Ecija at Morong. Kung sakali,t,
kami ay palaring magkamit ng boong pagtatagumpay sa mga kalaban at
aming magaua ang mga akalang ipinagsabi na sa liham na padala sa
kapatid na Magdalo at saka lamang namin matataningan sa inyo ang
kaarauan ng ating pagtatagpo sa kuta ng Maynila.

Kami ay nagbibigay sa inyo ng ualang likat na pasasalamat sa mga

iniaalay na ikabubuhay ng aming mga hokbo na hangang ngayo,i, ualang
ibang maguiguing kailangang malaki kung hindi ang baril.

Tungkol sa paglalagay ninyo ng apat na Ministro ay aming minamarapat

sa lalong kaayusan ng pangangasiua diyan.

Kami ay gumagaua naman ng lahat ng paraan upang makapagbili ng mga

sandatang kailangan yayamang ipinagkakaloob ninyo sa amin ang
maihahanap sa bagay na ito.

Uala kaming ibang nasa kundi magkikita tayo gaya ng inyo ding hangad at
ng maibigay ang aming mahigpit na yakap sa mga kapatid na natutong
kumatauan at maituturing na bumuhay ng dakilang kadahilanan ng
Katipunan ng mga anak ng bayan.

Niyaong mabasa namin sa diario ang labanan sa Nasugbu, bagama,t,

bihasa na sa mga kasinungalingang laguing sinasabi ay tila ng lumo ang
aming loob sa mga nasusulat doong isang daan at limang puong tagalog
ang nangamatay sa mga palkonete at kanong na agao sa kanila ng mga
Kastila; datapuat ngayong nabasa namin ang mga padala ninyong sulat
dito, tua at ligaya ang aming dinaramdam.

Sa hangan dito at kami ay paalam na sa inyo hangang sa panibagong liham

na pangako namin hindi malalaon at kayo,y, padadalhan muli.

Uala namang kaming ibang maipagtatagubilin liban sa pagiingat na huag

masira ang pagkakaisa at pagkakasundo sa lahat ng bagay. Sa
katahimikan at lubos na kaligayahan datnin naua kayo nitong mahigpit na
yakap namin.

Ika 30 ng Oktubre ng taong 1896

Ang K. Pangulo Ang K. Kalihim

Andres Bonifacio Emilio Jacinto
Maypagasa Pingkian

May isang tatak

Kataastaasang Sangunian
 
›››››››››››››››››››››
English translation
K. K. K.
N. M. A. N. B.

Supreme Council

To Brother Mainam, President, and Brother Kidlat ng Apoy, Army

Commander, of the Magdiwang Council.

Dear Brothers,

Today, the twenty-ninth day of this present month, we received the letters
you sent to us. We have truly longed to read reports of such great good
cheer! Nothing has lifted our hearts more than hearing the news you relate
about the organization, sound judgment, bravery and successes there. But
at the same time we feel sorrow when we recall the misfortune of the
numerous brothers and compatriots who were our partners and comrades
in building our K.K.K.

We have already sent a letter to our brother Gral. Emilio Aguinaldo in

response to communications received from the Province of Cavite about our
situation and plans. We will not repeat here what we said, because we
expect that the said brother has already let you know. Since the battle at the
San Juan gunpowder depot, although it has been very dangerous for us, we
have been compelled to go to Manila because we wanted to send a letter to
our compatriots in Japan about the lack of guns and other weapons we need,
and also to persuade our brother soldiers to take the field, but our Japanese
friend Moritaro seems to be frightened, and has refused to assist in sending
our letter, and the brother soldiers were already imprisoned before the
revolt broke out.

We have received news that troops are coming to our area and we will be
looking out for them immediately, so we have only just started to get
organized and strengthen our forces here. For this reason we are not
planning at present to leave this place and go there, for we need to attend to
the countless brothers in the Provinces of Manila, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija and
Morong. If possible, if we have the fortune to gain complete victory over the
forces of the enemy and accomplish the aims we already related in the letter
sent to brother Magdalo, we can then set a date with you for our assault on
the fortress of Manila

We extend to you our boundless gratitude for the support you have offered in
sustaining our armies, so there are no major exigencies at present aside
from the lack of guns.

Regarding your creation of four Ministries: we endorse this as a means of

improving the organization of the administration there. 7
We are doing everything we can to purchase the weapons we need, in
accordance with the mission that you have entrusted to us in this regard.

We desire nothing else other than to see that we share the same ambitions,
and to extend a close embrace to the brothers who have shown how to take
the initiative and to bring to life the great cause of the Katipunan ng mga
Anak ng Bayan.

When we read in the newspaper about the battle in Nasugbu, even though
we are already accustomed to the lies they always tell, the report that 150
Tagalogs were killed by the falconets and cannon taken from them by the
Spaniards made our mood somber. 8 But now we have read the letters you
have sent here, our feelings are light and joyful.

For the present that is all, and we bid you farewell until the next letter, which
we promise we will send before long.

We ask for nothing except that care is taken not to fracture our unity and
concord on all matters.  We hope you will receive this close embrace of ours
in peace and complete happiness.  

30th October of the year 1896

The Supreme President The Supreme Secretary

Andres Bonifacio Emilio Jacinto
Maypagasa Pingkian

[Seal of the Supreme Council]

›››››››››››››››››››››

Addendum

As soon as Bonifacio’s letter arrived in Noveleta, Mariano Alvarez ordered

copies to be made for circulation to the town presidents in Magdiwang
territory. Transcribed below is his covering note, in which he asks them to
receive the Supremo’s fraternal embrace and to raise the cheer “Long live,
long live the King of our sacred Katipunan!” Alvarez’s titling of Bonifacio as
King (Hari) and of himself as Vice-King or Viceroy (Vi-Rey or Virrey) aroused
controversy in Cavite at the time, and has been much discussed since. Some
accounts say the Magdiwang council bestowed the regal title on Bonifacio only
after he came to Noveleta on November 18, 1896, but this note hails him as
the “Hari” even before he arrived. No document has yet been found in which
Bonifacio used the title himself, and in fact he rarely used the Hispanic
honorific more widely accorded him in Cavite, “Supremo”. More often he
either retained, as here, his pre-revolutionary designation “Kataastaasang
Pangulo” (Supreme President) or assumed the title “Pangulo ng Haring
Bayan” (President of the Sovereign People).

›››››››››››››››››››››
Mariano Alvarez (Mainam)
Circular to town presidents, October 31, 1896

Kpd. na mga Plo dito sa S.B. Magdiuang:

Salinas Sa arao na ito ay tinangap ko po ang kalatas na sagot sa

Panguagi o
Tanza aking sulat ng ating Hari na (Y.N.D.)9 ang ganitong
Maguagi
Ternate saysay.
Magtagumpay
Magallanes
Ang mga bagay na ito ay ipinagbibigay alam ko sa inyo
Bailen
Alfonso mga kapatid upang inyong mapagunaua ang kalagayan
Indan
Amadeo at tuloy namang sambitin ninyo ang uicang mabuhay
Mapagtiis mabuhay ang Hari nitong ating banal na Katipunan.
Ualang Tiguil o
Madalian Salubong yakap na punong puno ng pagibig sa kapatid at
ingatan naua tayong lahat ng Panginoong Dios sa
mahabang panahon.

Magdiuang ika-31 ng Oktubre ng 1896

Ang Presdte dito sa S.B.

Mainam
1
Artemio Ricarte, Himagsikan nang manga Pilipino laban sa Kastila. (Yokohama: Karihan Café, 1927), 30-1;
Santiago Alvarez, The Katipunan and the Revolution: Memoirs of a General [1927]. Translated by Paula
Carolina S. Malay (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1992), 66.
2
Ricarte, Himagsikan, 31.
3
None of the familiar sources mentions the fact that Bonifacio was in contact with Aguinaldo before he was
located by the courier sent by the Magdiwang council. Though perhaps surprising, it is probably not significant.
It may merely have been that someone was able to carry a letter from Bonifacio to the Magdalo headquarters in
the town of Cavite el Viejo before a courier could be found who was heading to the Magdiwang headquarters in
Noveleta.
4
For a superbly researched biography of Moritaro Tagawa, see Yoko Yoshikawa, “Jose M. Tagawa and the
Japanese Commercial Sector in Manila,” Philippine Studies, 43:2 (1995), 162-94. The meeting between
Katipunan leaders and officers from the Kongo is recalled in “The Memoirs of Pio Valenzuela” [c.1914],
translated from the Tagalog by Luis Serrano, reproduced as Appendix A in The Minutes of the Katipunan
(Manila: National Heroes Commission, 1964), 103-4.
5
Bonifacio’s plan is said to have been for Tagawa to establish a trading company that would export Philippine
hemp, sugar and tobacco to Japan, and for the profits to be used to purchase the guns. Tagawa, he hoped, would
be willing to go to Japan (at the Katipunan’s expense) to arrange the deal himself. Takuya Osaki, Chomin
Sakamoto Shiroo [The Late Sakamoto Shiroo] (Tokyo: Chomin’kai, 1932), cited in Josefa M. Saniel, Japan and
the Philippines, 1868-1898 (Manila: De La Salle University Press, 1998), 250; and in Yoshikawa, “Jose M.
Tagawa,” 172.
6
This text has not been transcribed directly from the original document. The two versions on microfilm in the
UST archives are at best copies made by clerks in the Cavite towns to which the letter was forwarded, and are
more likely to be copies of copies. Although the wording is for the most part identical, the orthography differs
markedly, one version generally favoring the “k” (as did Bonifacio and Jacinto), and the other the “c”. The clerk
who copied the latter, one presumes, altered the orthography of the original to make it conform more to his or
her own. Here the “k” version has been followed in the main, but not invariably, because it too contains apparent
errors and inconsistencies of transcription.
7
After liberating their territories from Spanish control, both the Magdiwang and Magdalo kept the Katipunan
designation Sangunian Bayan (Popular Councils) but also reorganized themselves as revolutionary Panguluhan
or Presidencias, sub-provincial governments each with a cabinet of ministers and a military high command. The
four Magdiwang ministries to which Bonifacio refers were Gracia y Justicia (headed by Mariano Trias as
minister); Fomento (Emiliano Riego de Dios); Guerra (Ariston Villanueva); and Hacienda (Diego Mojica). A
fifth ministry – Interior, headed by Cornelio Magsarili – is mentioned in some accounts, but presumably this
must have been established at a slightly later date. Telesforo Canseco, “Historia de la Insurrección Filipina en
Cavite” [1897]. Typescript, 27 [“Historia Civil de Filipinas,” Tomo 7 (on microfilm), UST archives]; Alvarez, The
Katipunan and the Revolution, 42.
8
The version of events that Bonifacio read in a Manila newspaper was probably an embellishment of the official
communiqué issued by the Governor General, Ramon Blanco. On Sunday, October 18, the coastal town of
Nasugbu in Batangas had been retaken from “the rebels” by forces under the command of General Nicolas
Jaramillo. This “hard-fought and glorious victory” had been won by troops of Regiments 70 and 73 of the Third
Cazadores Battalion and the Guardia Civil, supported by marines and heavy artillery fire from two gunboats in
the harbor, the Leyte and the Bulacan. “The enemy fled towards Looc, chased by our columns, leaving in the
field and entrenchments 104 dead and many weapons, including a cannon and three falconets. On our side there
were two men killed and 23 injured.” But this was not the full story. Women, children and other non-
combatants, the Jesuit historians Achutegui and Bernad relate, had sought refuge from the fighting in the
church. “But the Spanish army did not respect that sanctuary. The church doors were battered down, the
soldiers entered and slaughtered the refugees. They then set fire to the church and convento. None were spared
except some women, who were taken ‘to satisfy the soldiers’ lust’”. The Spanish atrocity, proclaimed Aguinaldo,
revealed “the bitter hatred, the contempt and the savagery of these so-called ‘Fathers of Civilization’”. Fernando
Soldevilla, El Año Político, 1896 (Madrid: Imprenta de Enrique Fernandez-de-Rojas, 1897), 412-3; El Correo
Militar (Madrid), October 20 and 21, 1896; Pedro S. de Achutegui SJ and Miguel A. Bernad SJ, Aguinaldo and
the Revolution of 1896: A documentary history (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila, 1972), 29; Emilio Aguinaldo,
“Manifiesto” dated October 31, 1896 in Achutegui and Bernad SJ, Aguinaldo and the Revolution of 1896, 30-3.
9
An abbreviation of “Yngatan ng Dios”.